21 December 2008

Christmas greetings from overseas

In case you hadn't heard, the Portland area has been getting a load of snow this past week. There's also been a bit of ice, and, much to the chagrin of anyone who moved here from the Midwest or East Coast, the city has been panicking. I freely admit that I'm not a big "driving in the snow" person, so I didn't make it to the Lahash office until Friday. On Friday I went to work with my dad and caught the Max out to the office. When time came for me to return to Beaverton, Dan dropped me at the Lloyd Center Max station, where a train was conveniently waiting. Or maybe not so conveniently waiting.

After waiting about a minute without the doors opening, the Max driver announced "Sorry folks, I can't open the doors to let you on or off. The Portland police have advised that there are armed gunmen fleeing in this direction." Upon hearing that, I began to look around and finally noticed the multiple police cars on each corner, and the uniformed officers approaching the Max platform. All the passengers on the platform began looking askance at each other, and some unfortunately close young black men were subjected to intense scrutiny from many onlookers, both those looking to make an arrest and those looking to make a citizens' arrest. Here's the news story I found when I got home.

I called Dan and Erin, who were close by still, and they took me to another Max stop, so I made it home sans bullets, much to relief of my grandma, who believes that NE Portland is all gangstas and prostitutes.

Anyway, I had a packet of Christmas letters from the kids in Uganda for their sponsors, so Dan and I were working on an update letter for those sponsors, hoping to get it out before Christmas. Then, with about an hour before I had to leave, the mail arrived with a huge packet of Christmas letters from Tanzania! That effectively doubled my work load, which I spent last night and this morning preparing for the mail.

So if you sponsor a child through Lahash, you should have Christmas greetings winging their way toward you, just in time for Christmas!